Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1887-08-03
A FIERCE RACE WAR.
Life and Death In the Kimberly CSoutl
Africal Diamond Elelds


The slaughter of the blacks and their
retaliation on the miners have kept KIM
berly IN continual fermont, saws a KIM
berly (South Africa) correspondent of the
philadelphia Neics, and have already been
serious injury to the diamond settlement
as well as far more destructive of human
life than Is acknowledged here, or than
the outside world has any idea Of Not
since the mines we re discovered in 1857
have they been more crowded with ad-
venturers from all parts Of the W world than
last winter. The number of diamonds
sold to the United States and to dealers
known to supply the American market
has been less than usual, but demand for
the European and Asiatic buyers has
seemed to increase. Since the trouble
with the natives began, early in January,
however, dealers have been more
wary in coming, for the journey through
the brush from the coast has bcen in
many cases fatal to white adventurers
In many others they lost their lives be-
fore they had been two weeks in the dig.
gings.
On February 5 Dcvlin, miner from Liv.
erpooL while out hunting with three COM
panions came across a band of natives,
and carried of one of them to their cabins
as slave. They lived some distance
TO the northwest OF the town, and nothin Q
was known hero of their adventure. The
next morning Dsxliny-vas sfound-in the
door OF his cabin with spear stuck clean
through him, while the other two Law, al.
most dead from loss Of blood, on the floor
behind him, one with a spear in his side
ana the other pinned to the plank bed he
had been sleeping on by an assegai
through the neck. The black slave was
nowhere to be seen.
when the news was brought to Kimber.
~ the excitement was tremendous. By
noon some seventy armed miners were
galloping along the trail of the band of
natives who had evidently made the res
cue aud butchered Devlin. After fifteen
miles hard riding the blacks wore over
taken in gorge that ran abruptly into
the Vaal, and there, between the pistols
OF the miners and the boiling current,
which runs very swiftly over the most
prectpltous part of the bed of the Vaal.
more than forty Of the natives lost their
lives
A general rally of the blacks followed
from the mountains fifty miles around.
One or two Of the miner chiefs, notably
Suoa, formally declared war Of exterml.
nation against all the whites in the coun.
try. The number Of negro warriors who
swarmed around Kimberly could not
have been less than 450. Some few of
them were armed with pistols,
but in most cases tho assagai
and bow and arrows were their only weap.
ons- They began by butchering the
boers, their more ancient encmies, now
oouoly hateful Twenty or thirty OF the
rlchest rancaers in Vaal valley had their
throats cut, their barns burned and their
sneep and oxen driven cff in half dozen
nights. When heavily armed bodies of
miners rode out after them it was ex.
ceedingly difficult to dc little more than
nnd the savages' last nights camrfice.
Everywhere ruin and bloodshed IN lrksd
the trail, and in few, if any, cases did
they snow ngat. But every straggler,
every belatei scouting party, was am.
bushed remorselessly And the outlavino
settlements of Kimberly had to be
abandoned entirely, everybody moved in
side the great corral in the center of the
town. Here day and night during the
SIEGE" as it was called, for q couple OF
months. gambling Of all kinds, drinking.
dancing, and even more offensive
amuscments have borne witness to the
general raldemoralization Finally the blacks
were driven away. Since then an armed
patrol has been on duty every night
around Kimberly, and numerous encoun.
loss OF life, betwoon the blacks and the
miners.
From Kimberly all the diam 7nds found
in the Vaal valley are shipped. The depot
OF the Orange valley is much smaller, but
these two points between the Years 1867
and 1881 alone exported 81 600 0)0 in dia.
monds. After that the production fell off,
but within the last year or two it has
been greatly increased, and the discovery
OF the new fields some distance down the
valley has started another big boom for
Kimberly, or had startei it rather, until
the situation with the blacks bccams sc
serious. Some of the most famous Kim.
oerly diamonds now knowa to diamond
experts all over the world are the follow
ing:
The Dudley or Star Of South Africa, is
chiefly notable for thu fact that its discov.
cry marked the beginning of the develop
ment Of the diamond fields of South AT.
rica- 1t was found in 1887 by a black. who
sold 1t to Dutch settler. The latter dis
covered 1T to be genuine diamond and of
eighty-three karats in weight. 1t was re-
duced to forty-six and q half karats in
cutting and polishing, and was aftcrward
sold to the Earl of Dud,ey for SI1, 200. Ii
is triangular stone of great brilliancy
and perfectly colorless. Its present owner
has had it mounted with ninety-fiye
smaller brilliaEt% as a coronet, giving full
erect TO its beaut ful and splendid luster
Tho Stewart was discovered in 1872. II
weighed sSS11 karats in the rough and IA!
karats after cutting Like the majority
OF South American diamonds it has a
light yellow tinse. BUTTS capitalization is
very perfect. Until the discovery of the
Porter-Rhodes stone in 1890 this was the
largest diamond ever discovered IN South
African fields. The Porter-Rhodes is a
blue and white stone, weighing l5J
karats.
The Porter-Rhodes, which taxes its
name from the owner, was discovered in
1880. It is yet uncut, and is valued in its
present state at $4,000. 1t is called the
olue-white diamond, of pure water and
great beauty. Its weight is $50 karats
IL differs materially from the majority OF
the stones found at the Cape, which are
ordinarily Of a yellowish lu ster.
The deposits in which diamonds are
found here is an upright mass of steatitic
or soapStone cay, two hundred Yards
wide, with superficial area of nine
acres. Sticking up all through this mass
are found throats or pipes Of the steatite
through which the volcanic matter con-
tanning the diamonds has been elected.
The Surrounding sandstone which pro-
tects these 'chimneys," Is entirely bar.
rem OF diamonds. The claims are laid ont
thirty-two feet square, and are wo ked
down TO depth Of four hundred Eat